Zübük: The Liberal Tyrant’s Authoritarian Spirit
(2025)
author(s): Tolga Theo Yalur
published in: Research Catalogue
During the early weeks of the Gezi Park Protests in the summer of 2013, the Turkish government banned gatherings in Taksim Square. One man, however, stood alone in front of the Ataturk Cultural Centre (AKM), one of the symptoms around the never-ending events and culture wars, with the police around, obviously "obeying" the ban on gatherings. He instantly went viral on the internet: The Standing Man (Duran Adam), reminiscent of an unknown 1950s Hollywood melodrama The Man Who Stood There, while others began to stand "alone" nearby, but not exactly in the legally described form of an assembly or public gathering. As such, only the man's name was mythified and not the other participants'.
Meet the Yunani
(2025)
author(s): Tolga Theo Yalur
published in: Research Catalogue
Meet the Yunani is my mix-up audio-visual-inscriptive artwork for the Unani or Yunani systems of medicine that are deployed in medical fraud. I deploy cognitive philosophy, art and science in this webart for the real settings of scientific hoaxes, the illusions concealed through prescribed fictions, and represented as the real. A mix-up audio-visual-inscriptive artwork for the Yunani, often touted as a "traditional" and "holistic" approach to health and well-being. In truth, the various versions of deploying Unani in medicine is inothing more than a parascientific hoax perpetrated by those aiming to capitalize on the growing demand for "alternative" and “natural” remedies. Unani (یونانی) is simply a rebranding of the Perso-Arabic medical traditions, which in turn were heavily influenced by the teachings of the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, who, while pioneering advances in the human anatomy and physiology, also promoted a flawed model of the human body and health based on the concept of the four humours - blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Unani practitioners of the Perso-Arabic medical traditional medicine, accompanied by Judeo-Hellenic adaptations represented with the neoplatonistic tree of life sefirot (סְפִירוֹת / σφαίρα), Greek humours or "doṣas" (दोष) from the Ayurvedic medicine claim to have inherited this ancient Greek wisdom. In truth they have merely taken these outdated and disproven theories, given them an exotic-sounding name, and presented them as traditional wisdom. Unani's diagnostic methods and treatment approaches, from bloodletting to the use of arcane herbal concoctions, lack scientific bases and were thoroughly debunked by modern medical research. The allure of this “ancient wisdom”, however, continues to draw those in need of alternative healthcare, without knowing that they are falling victim to a sophisticated marketing ploy masquerading as traditional medicine. The Unani's mystical trappings are nothing more than a pseudoscientific hoax rooted in long-refuted Greek four humour theory.
A Note on Early Quantum Mechanics
(2025)
author(s): Tolga Theo Yalur
published in: Research Catalogue
Intellectual landscape in mathematics, quantum mechanics and physics, philosophy of science, and other fields. Henri Poincaré's mathematical insights and Albert Einstein's seminal thought experiments opened the door to understanding the most fundamental aspects of physical reality, from the subatomic realm of particles and fields to the largest galactic superclusters and the origin of the universe itself. The pioneering work of Poincaré and Einstein in the early 20th century fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe, calling into question long-held ideas about space, time, and the very core of reality. Epicurus’ groundbreaking reflection in these fields influence the fields of applied mathematics today, profoundly shaping the scientific understanding of the solid forms that make up the universe.
Epicurus’ Quantum Philosophy
(2025)
author(s): Tolga Theo Yalur
published in: Research Catalogue
Quantum methods, based on differential equations, proved invaluable for many applications, ranging from building complex machines to mapping the motions of celestial objects. They represent a decisive advance in humanity's ability to understand and quantify the multi-dimensional reality. Epicurus’ groundbreaking reflection in these fields influence the fields of applied mathematics today, profoundly shaping the scientific understanding of the solid forms that make up the universe.
Epicurus’ Quantum Philosophy
(2025)
author(s): Tolga Theo Yalur
published in: Research Catalogue
Quantum methods, based on differential equations, proved invaluable for many applications, ranging from building complex machines to mapping the motions of celestial objects. They represent a decisive advance in humanity's ability to understand and quantify the multi-dimensional reality. Epicurus’ groundbreaking reflection in these fields influence the fields of applied mathematics today, profoundly shaping the scientific understanding of the solid forms that make up the universe.
Genocide or Suicide? Massive Deaths of the Non-Muslims in the Ottoman and Turkey
(2025)
author(s): Tolga Theo Yalur
published in: Research Catalogue
This article looks from a psychoanalytic-cultural approach to the ideologies and economy-politics in the truths and narratives around these places and events concerning ethnic, religious and national identities, and offers two opinions into a psycho-cultural narrative of parks, monumental places and genocides in Turkey. The complex is the collision of the secular and the sacred, for which the article presents a detailed interpretation of the material/wordly and the religious/otherworldly.